PANASONIC

Panasonic Corporation today unveiled its enhanced "freeze-ray" series
Data Archiver, using 300GB Optical Discs (scheduled for release in the
2nd half of 2016) at the OCP U.S. Summit 2016 being held March 9-10,
2016, in San Jose, California. Panasonic is proposing a data archiving
system based on large-capacity optical discs to complement conventional
recording media, such as HDDs and magnetic tape, for use in the
high-efficiency, next-generation data centers.

Panasonic's Optical Disc-Based Data Archive System*1
has
already been adopted in corporations and public institutions that
require long-term data storage. “freeze-ray,” which was developed
through extensive validation and testing to be deployed in the data
centers of a large-scale Cloud Service Provider in the US, was announced
in January at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, as an Optical Disc-Based Data
Archive System based on 100GB Blu-ray Disc.

* See the Development Background of the freeze-ray Series below.

In order to provide at-scale data storage, the enhanced freeze-ray
system adopts Archival Disc*2
with a recording capacity of
300GB per disc. Use of the 300GB Archival Disc will enable a maximum of
1.9 petabytes (1 petabyte = 1,000 terabytes) of data to be stored in a
standard 19-inch data center rack.

Data centers require safe and secure data storage for decades.
Panasonic's Archival Disc meets that requirement as a WORM (Write Once
Read Many) media that prevents data overwrite or data falsification
along with providing an estimated lifetime of 100 years or more.*3
Using
the long-life Archival Disc eliminates the cost of having to migrate
data periodically as is necessary with conventional media. Additionally,
as Panasonic’s Archival Disc can be operated at room temperature, the
energy cost to control data center facilities’ temperature is
significantly reduced.

In the future, Panasonic plans to increase the capacity of the Archival
Disc to 500GB and eventually 1TB per disc, which will enable an even
larger-scale freeze-ray system, including petabyte capacity increases.
With freeze-ray, Panasonic will continuously work on shaping the
next-generation data center and meeting industry requirements by helping
to reduce data center costs.

*2 Archival Disc: Panasonic Corporation and Sony Corporation have
announced that they have formulated "Archival Disc", a new standard for
professional-use, next-generation optical discs. Both companies started
co-development in July 2013 and completed a standard with recording
capacity of 300GB per disc by the end of 2015.

*3 the lifetime of Panasonic Archival Disc is estimated to be 100 years
or more at temperatures of 30ºC and humidity of 70% RH according to
accelerated tests now being conducted.

Development Background of the freeze-ray Series

Panasonic has developed “freeze-ray” in collaboration with Facebook.
Panasonic has contributed by providing its high-density optical
technology, key devices and library software to control the system
easily in the data center. Facebook collaborated by providing its
unmatched expertise in designing, deploying, managing and servicing
storage systems in data centers. In addition, Facebook provided
extensive technical and real-world data center feedback at every stage
of the development. Both companies plan to contribute to collaborate in
order to provide even greater benefits to the data center industry.http://news.panasonic.com/global/press/data/2016/01/en160106-5/en160106-5.html

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development of
diverse electronics technologies and solutions for customers in the
consumer electronics, housing, automotive, enterprise solutions and
device industries. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded
globally and now operates 468 subsidiaries and 94 associated companies
worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.715 trillion yen for
the year ended March 31, 2015. Committed to pursuing new value through
innovation across divisional lines, the company uses its technologies to
create a better life and a better world for its customers. To learn more
about Panasonic: http://www.panasonic.com/global
.